Monday, August 28, 2017

After much back and forth, Uber's got a brand new CEO; the top trends to watch in 2018 and beyond; how AI will affect our children; the winner-takes-all approach to autonomous vehicles; comScore's 2017 Mobile Apps Report; consumers want more from brands; beware of falling prices — at Whole Foods; Walmart has more partners in its battle against Amazon; #HappyBirthday, hashtag; Facebook gets more transparent — except when it doesn't; the top streaming device is ___; the destruction of albums; Sonos is taking a hard line with its privacy policy; SoftBank bets on WeWork; impact measurement for marketing; billiards—or life—is a multi-shot game; and more in the Papa's Got a Brand New Bag edition of The Full Monty. Don't forget check out where Brain+Trust is speaking (final section below).

We've got all of these links — and those that didn't make the cut for publication — in The Full Monty Magazine on Flipboard.

Top Stories

As the weekend began, it looked as if GE chairman Jeff Immelt was the front runner for the uncoveted Uber CEO job. However, in a single tweet, Immelt pulled out of Uber CEO race. Some insiders say he thought Uber's board as dysfunctional, and the lawsuit-happy board members from Benchmark as destructive.

Interested in the long-term investment opportunities that might arise from disruption? According to Morgan Stanley, you should watch these emerging trends in the coming decade. Spoiler alert: machine learning, autonomous vehicles, augmented reality, blockchain, and CRISPR. Go figure—many of the same topics we cover here.

Whether it's Waymo, Apple, Tesla or the traditional automotive OEMs, these titans are battling it out for the first-to-market with autonomous vehicles. This long read addresses the winner-takes-all effect we're witnessing in autonomous vehicles and why so many players have something at stake, by Ben Evans.

About a fifth of digital ad spending — an estimated $16 billion this year — will wind up in the pockets of scammers and phony publishers. With help from Nasdaq, a startup called NYIAX is trying to solve manipulation and transparency problems that are all too familiar in the financial sector.

THIS WEEK IN RETAIL:

Walmart is teaming up with Googleto take on Amazon Prime. Google Express will eliminate its annual $95 membership fee, and many of Walmart's items will be listed on Google. Both companies are under threat by Amazon and are in need of catching up. Disclosure: Walmart is a Brain+Trust client.

Kohl's plans to make half of its 1,100 stores "operationally smaller" by the end of the year. Under continued pressure from other retailers — particularly online — the company aims to fine-tune its ominchannel strategy that balances online and offline. A familiar situation for many.

Nordstrom and Macy's are two retailers facing extreme challenges, but both may be in the best position to survive. This piece contains a concise and insightful few paragraphs that chronicle the history of department stores and their move from downtown flagships to anchor stores in suburban malls, with some hints as to what is next.

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Want to know what 500 marketers (budgets up to $10 million) believe and how those beliefs influence their behaviors when it comes to hiring and firing agencies just like yours?

According to a study from eMarketer, Facebook still has a teen problem, with the 12-17 year-old demographic expected to shrink by 3.4% as the population gravitates toward Instagram and Snapchat.

SNAP

For 18-24 year-olds, Snapchat is still bigger than Instagram. From comScore's Mobile Report (referenced above), Snapchat is the 3rd most popular app for this group, after YouTube and Facebook. Instagram is 5th.

ALPHABET / GOOGLE / YOUTUBE

YouTube has a 'Breaking News' category across many platforms. Given the popularity of the app with the aforementioned 18-24 year-old segment, you can bet that YouTube will become a primary destination for news for this group.

Media

The latest in the world of streaming video, audio, and the advertising, pricing and bundling models related to them.

Program of the Week: This week's recommendation is The Black Tapes, a serialized docudrama about one journalist's search for truth, her enigmatic subject's mysterious past, and the literal and figurative ghosts that haunt them both. Thanks to Carolyn Capern for the suggestion. Do you have a program to recommend? Add yours to our Google Sheet: smonty.co/yourpodcasts.

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The Detroit Digital Summit is September 11-13, 2017. It's filled with speakers, workshops and sessions on the latest trends, tactics and insights—where ideas and inspiration are formed. You don't want to miss this one.Use checkout code BT50 to receive $50 off of your ticket.

Regulatory / Security

Business disruptions in the legal, regulatory, and computer security fields, from hacking to the on-demand economy and more.

As you design systems that incorporate some sort of win/lose scenario, it's unlikely that you'll include duration as an element. Such is the notion of the reputational cue ball that positions you for the next shot. And yet it's helpful to remember that billiards—or life—is a multi-shot game.

Rutherford B. Hayes won the presidency in 1876 thanks to the 'Victorian Internet.' As in the 1870s, we are now in the midst of a technological revolution that has altered the flow of information. So the question naturally arises: Who Owns the Internet?

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Brain+Trust Partners helps smart, risk-taking executives discern the real from the hype. From strategy development to technology and data vendor selection, to digital transformation and streamlining processes, our focus is on the customer experience. And our decades of experience working for major brands means that we deeply understand the challenges you're facing. Let us know if we can help you.